Pill-Poppers Flock to Florida

Staten Island leads the way

(NEWSER) - New York City's special narcotics prosecutor unveiled some eye-popping numbers about prescription drugs in the Big Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal :

• One million prescriptions for the pain reliever oxycodone—the generic name for Oxycontin—were filled in 2010. That's enough for 1 in 8 residents of the five boroughs, or 13% of the population.
• The percentage is 28% in Staten Island. Add in Vicodin, and it's 33%.
• The 1 million figure has doubled since 2007.

Overdoses now leading cause of accidental death in Scioto County

(NEWSER) - Scioto County sits in the southern tip of Ohio, an unremarkable piece of Appalachia save for the deadly tidal wave of prescription drugs washing over its population. Overdoses have quadrupled over the past decade, reports the New York Times, and are now the leading cause of accidental death, ahead of even car crashes. One in 10 babies born here tests positive for drugs; the most popular among the area's addicts is OxyContin. “It was moving so fast that families were caught totally off guard," says a counselor. "They had no idea what they were dealing with.” More»

Actress was vomiting before death

(NEWSER) - Friends and those who worked with Brittany Murphy were concerned about her recent stick thin, sickly appearance. “She looked painfully thin, even sick. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in who knows how long, her skin was terrible,” said one observer. Magazine editors recently opted not to use photos of Murphy at an event early this month because of her appearance. "She looked terrible. So thin. We all commented on it,” an editor at a celebrity weekly told MSNBC . More»

Lawsuit blames stores for zonked driver's accident

(NEWSER) - When a driver, high on painkillers, ran her car into two guys fixing a flat tire on the side of the highway, killing one of them, the victims' families filed a lawsuit—against the pharmacies that sold the painkillers. That case, pending before the Nevada Supreme Court, will be the first to address whether pharmacies, which now have access to online prescription-tracking databases, should be held responsible for enabling drug abusers. The defendants—including Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreens—are worried. More»

Jasinski says he used $500K prize to buy, sell painkillers

(NEWSER) - Big Brother 9 winner Adam Jasinski made his first court appearance today in Massachusetts after being charged with trying to sell 2,000 prescription painkiller pills. After a brief struggle with agents, the DEA says Jasinski waived his Miranda rights and confessed to using his $500,000 winnings from the reality show last year to set up an oxycodone ring, the Boston Globe reports. More»